ON THE NINTH floor of a Wan Chai high-rise is a temple to the personality cult of Supreme Master Ching Hai, a Vietnamese woman whose followers claim possesses a 'sublime inner light'.
A devotee entered the converted office on Thomson Road, which is hung with portraits of the master alongside a collection of 700 videotapes of her world travels, on Thursday afternoon. The man, in his 20s, drew a velvet curtain around an area beside the throne-like pink sofa and table reserved for the 'living saint' on her visits to Hong Kong and knelt down to pray. He, along with a couple of thousand others in the SAR who follow the Taiwan-based 50-year-old guru, was seeking to make contact with his quan yin, or inner vibration, through a method of Buddhist-inspired meditation which is to be practised for more than two hours every day.
In an interview, spokeswoman Liza Chow outlined the benefits of meditation, describing how she felt 'very happy and comfortable' after each session. She said those initiated into the movement must become vegetarians and follow other precepts prohibiting the use of alcohol or drugs, telling lies and sexual misconduct.
What she did not mention, however, were controversies surrounding Ching Hai.
Followers drank her bathwater believing it had curative powers, according to a 1997 US newspaper report. A devotee from New Zealand told the South China Morning Post last year that others ate her soap because anything she touched contained vibrations.
Asked about the allegations, Ms Chow said: 'That is nonsense. The master is very concerned about cleanliness.'